"I’m Frightened After Paris Attacks", A New York City Muslim Complained

When in the subway, stand away from the platform edge, preferably with your back against a wall. Walk in groups after dark. Stay alert at all times.

In the days since the Paris terrorist attacks, Muslims in New York and elsewhere have guarded against a violent backlash, changing their routines and trying to manage their fear.

Still, the violence has come.

In the past week and a half, several Muslims in New York, mostly women wearing head scarves, have reported being victims of verbal abuse and physical assault. Even some non-Muslims — including at least one Latino mistaken for a Muslim — have been subjected to Islamophobic taunts or worse, community leaders said.

In an episode the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported this week, two Muslim women in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn said that a man claiming to be a postal worker assaulted them, elbowing one and spitting in her face, and telling them he was going to burn down their “temple.” The police arrested a man on Tuesday in connection with the episode and charged him with aggravated harassment and menacing as a hate crime.

“We’ve never seen so much backlash against the Muslim community” since the Sept. 11 attacks, said Sadyia Khalique, director of operations for the New York office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “I’m frightened.”